Maximum and minimum of an array using minimum number of comparisons

First of all, how do we return multiple values from a C function? We can do it either using structures or pointers.

We have created a structure named pair (which contains min and max) to return multiple values.

struct pair
{
int min;
int max;
};

And the function declaration becomes: struct pair getMinMax(int arr[], int n) where arr[] is the array of size n whose minimum and maximum are needed.

METHOD 1 (Simple Linear Search)
Initialize values of min and max as minimum and maximum of the first two elements respectively. Starting from 3rd, compare each element with max and min, and change max and min accordingly (i.e., if the element is smaller than min then change min, else if the element is greater than max then change max, else ignore the element)

In this method, total number of comparisons is 1 + 2(n-2) in worst case and 1 + n – 2 in best case.
In the above implementation, worst case occurs when elements are sorted in descending order and best case occurs when elements are sorted in ascending order.

METHOD 2 (Tournament Method)
Divide the array into two parts and compare the maximums and minimums of the the two parts to get the maximum and the minimum of the the whole array.

Pair MaxMin(array, array_size)
if array_size = 1
return element as both max and min
else if arry_size = 2
one comparison to determine max and min
return that pair
else /* array_size > 2 */
recur for max and min of left half
recur for max and min of right half
one comparison determines true max of the two candidates
one comparison determines true min of the two candidates
return the pair of max and min

Time Complexity: O(n)
Total number of comparisons: let number of comparisons be T(n). T(n) can be written as follows:
Algorithmic Paradigm: Divide and Conquer

T(n) = T(floor(n/2)) + T(ceil(n/2)) + 2
T(2) = 1
T(1) = 0

If n is a power of 2, then we can write T(n) as:

T(n) = 2T(n/2) + 2

After solving above recursion, we get

T(n) = 3/2n -2

Thus, the approach does 3/2n -2 comparisons if n is a power of 2. And it does more than 3/2n -2 comparisons if n is not a power of 2.

METHOD 3 (Compare in Pairs)
If n is odd then initialize min and max as first element.
If n is even then initialize min and max as minimum and maximum of the first two elements respectively.
For rest of the elements, pick them in pairs and compare their
maximum and minimum with max and min respectively.